ZEALOT Portable Bluetooth Speaker, Bluetooth Speakerfor Bicycle, Handlebar sepaker, IPX5 Waterproof, LED Torch Light, MIC/TF/AUX for Home Outdoor Hiking Camping iOS Andoird -Gray

I've been trying to get a speaker on my bicycle for awhile, and so far this is the most complete realization I've seen. I haven't actually taken it out on a ride yet, and may come back to update this review if this device fails to hold up. < **UPDATE BELOW** > I've just taken it out of the box, played some music via Bluetooth, then turned on the FM radio. Both work well. A single "M" button toggles through the functions, with a voice prompt letting you know what function you've accessed - there's no need for readout. Perfect for cycling. Bluetooth was loud and clear 20 feet away from the audio source, and the FM radio was surprisingly sensitive (after plugging in the charging cable as an antenna). Using Bluetooth, the volume control appears to only control the actual speaker volume, not the volume on the phone. Other Bluetooth speakers I've used turn the phone's volume up and down. Considering the multiple audio sources this device will play (Bluetooth, USB audio from a computer, FM radio, and SDcard) having the volume control simply control the built in amplifier makes sense. This is not a powerful speaker, which is why the weight and form factor enable it to be mounted on bicycle handlebars. However I see the mount will let you easily adjust the position so the available sound hits your ears directly. I had a more powerful bluetooth speaker mounted in the water bottle cage, but the position meant most of the sound didn't reach my ears, it was not an enjoyable listening experience. In my kitchen, this speaker greatly benefits from proximity effect. Placing it in the corner greatly boosted the bass and overall sound so that I was able to rock at a pretty high volume. This is common with most speakers, but for some reason with the Zealot the effect was more pronounced. Placed in the corner, the sound was surprising rich and clear for such a small speaker, it was enjoyable. This unit has a built in bike light. Brilliant - you can't have too many lights when riding. It will charge your phone, though the literature says "in an emergency" - don't think this is intended to charge your phone like my water bottle cage bluetooth speaker, with its heavy battery could. Finally this will let you access the SD card via USB from a computer, so theoretically you could load songs and podcasts directly onto the SD card, then listen while riding without a phone. Overall I'm very impressed. This small inexpensive device succeeds as multipurpose, versatile, easy to use bicycle accessory. It was so inexpensive it fell into the "what have I got to lose" category, I was skeptical it would work well. Call me pleasantly surprised. Hope it holds out when I'm out riding, the build quality seems solid. UPDATE: put this through the torture of actual use on bicycle rides. I now love it even more. Actually like this better than the much more expensive JBL Charge +. Mounted on the handlebars of my road bicycle, there's still room for my iPhone and Garmin Edge 1000. You can easily adjust the speaker to directly hit your ears, can enjoy music without having to turn it up loud, you can still hear cars coming, and less power needed enables the smaller form factor. Also REALLY like the auto input switching, if you plug into the auxiliary input the voice says "line input". I used it as a studio monitor, left it on all night, next morning it still worked, holds the charge for a long time.

I have now owned my Zealot Bluetooth speaker/Light for over 3 months. It is quite a workhorse. I purchased this to replace my Photive Bike Speaker. The Photive introduced me to the luxury of having music safely while I biked, but it's mounting hardware made it unreliable and prone to falling off bracket. That will definitely not be happening with the Zealot. It has a hard compressed thick plastic mount that fits tightly to the handlebar and the speaker screws on to it like a camera to a tripod, so it isn't falling off during a bump. BTW, you can also use it to mount a Go-Pro or similar camera that has screw mount. (I notice a lot of complaints about mounts breaking. It is a small fit and if you screw too tight the hinge pin can break. I would say the maximum circumference is about 3-1/2 inches. My handlebar is 3 inches and I use a spacer, so measure before considering. When installing do not over-tighten). The light is super bright on high mode, that I can't even look into it without it blinding. It has three modes: Bright, Dim and Bright Flashing (S.O.S.). It is large in size like a hand-held flashlight and the silicone rubber covering makes it quite water-resistant. I have the sporty red color. I ride my bike to work everyday in most conditions, except in extreme snow, and this holds up perfectly on the city streets. The speaker is just loud enough for personal enjoyment without annoying others. Granted, this will not be the speaker you will bring to the beach if you want to get a party started, but for personal use the sound is perfect. I even take it with me when I want to enjoy music while relaxing at the park, but not annoy others trying to relax. You can play music via Bluetooth, an SD card, or via FM radio, but for latter you must insert the charging cord to work as an antenna. Not a fan, as I don't like have a long cord dangling by my front wheel while biking. I only use Bluetooth, so cannot reliably review other methods, except to say that SD works fine and you can use controls on speaker the same as you would use for Bluetooth (Volume, Next track, etc). FM is fine if you get good reception. Also, it does include an auxiliary cord if not using Bluetooth and USB charging cord in package. BTW, the packaging is beautiful, so it would make a great gift. The battery lasts for a long time, about 10 plus hours of usage on a charge, and will hold a charge for days. Most importantly, it is also a mobile power charger which most other Bluetooth bike speakers are not. I recently had my Iphone battery go down to 35 percent, and in 30 minutes of charging it brought it up to 65 percent. To get from 10 percent to 100 percent charge takes about and hour. If you want to use it while hiking, it includes a Carabiner Clip that you can attach to a belt loop or knapsack loop for emergency lighting and music while traveling. (When you first unpack light, there will be a screw with a loop on the threads that you have to remove to screw on mounting bracket. Do not throw that screw away, that is where Carabiner will attach}. You can also take calls via Bluetooth if you don't want to access your phone, which I usually have in a jacket pocket or knapsack while biking. So, in short - Great Bluetooth speaker, Water-resistant, a phone battery charger, a bright safety/emergency light, and a long charge. Perfect for the new generation of bikers.

"Why do you need a Bluetooth speaker on your bike anyway? Why not just wear Bluetooth earbuds?" Great question! Two reasons... First, I don't want anything in my ears that will prevent me from hearing the sounds around me for safety reasons. Second, I am one of those tin foil hat people who doesn't relish the idea of a Bluetooth device sitting smack up next to my brain. I ordered two different Bluetooth speakers for my road bike... one is the Avantree and one is the Zealot. I ordered both to see which I liked better and which one I'll be returning. I'll be reviewing them both here. SOUND QUALITY WINNER: Avantree The Avantree's sound is hands down superior to the Zealot. It puts out a rich, round sound, and has a good balance of low and high tones. It also seems to get louder than the Zealot which is nice in loud riding environments. Also, oddly, when you're playing loud 80s hair band music, you almost never have to yell ahead "On your left!" because folks can hear you coming. :o) The Zealot sound quality leaves a fair amount to be desired in terms of sound quality. It lacks a full spectrum of sound from high to low and sounds "cheap." The Avantree has a large speaker surface area on the long side of the unit, which no doubt contributes to its sound quality, while the Zealot has only one small speaker on the end of the unit, about 2 inches across. SIZE / WEIGHT WINNER: Zealot The Avantree is quite a bit larger than the Zealot as you can see in the pictures. (The Zealot is the grayish color one mounted on the handlebars and the Avantree is mounted on the top tube). The Zealot is quite a bit smaller and lighter in weight than the Avantree. The Avantree has the heft of a higher quality unit however it's so heavy that when mounted on the top tube as shown in the photos, the weight of it slooooowly pulls the mounting bracket down around the tube, so the speaker ends up sitting on the left side of the tube as I ride, which gets in the way of my left knee. I have to use my hand and push/pull it back to vertical about every 15 minutes or so, which aggravates me. I am going to try to tighten the silicone mounting straps, but I'm not hopeful that they will get any tighter than they currently are. For a workaround option, I could simply remove the Avantree's mounting bracket from the top tube and slip the speaker into one of my existing white water bottle caddies, (see pic) but that leaves me with only one water bottle and on a long ride, that's no bueno. This one flaw COULD be the thing that makes me return this otherwise great sounding speaker. MULTI-FUNCTION WINNER: Zealot One advantage of the Zealot over the Avantree is the Zealot offers multi-functionality, whereas the Avantree is only a speaker. The Zealot acts as a front headlight, which is really nice, especially since space is at a premium on my handlebars. The fact that it performs two important functions is very handy. Plus, it also acts as a backup charger for your phone if need be. Granted, I don't know how well it does on charging your device, but it does offer that functionality. CHARGING WINNER: Tie! The Avantree has a micro-USB charging port, as well as an aux (mini-plug) option. I believe the Zealot has those same connectors. They both charge quickly when plugged into a wall. As for battery life, they seem similar so far, but in fairness I haven't run either one for more than two hours at a time. EASE OF USE WINNER: Tie! The Bluetooth is very simple to connect to on both speakers. The controls are few and simple. Both are encased in silicone, however the Avantree says it's "water resistant" while the Zealot says it's "waterproof." Fortunately it hasn't rained on me since I've been riding with these on the bike, so I can't tell you how well they hold up to water. Honestly I'm not sure which one I'll keep yet. I need to try them a few more days to make up my mind. I'm kind of torn. Would love your input! Thanks!

UPDATE: Now that I have had some time to use this thing a bit more, I have come to be very dependent on it and I am upgrading my review to five stars. The most important thing I have noticed is the amazing battery life. I recently did a century ride that took 11 hours. I was using my phone screen for navigation the whole way, and this thing was a life-saver as a power bank. I plugged it in to my phone when it got below 50%, and still arrived home with 25% of my phone battery remaining. Absolute lifesaver! I have also found that the mount has become more stable with time so I rarely have to re-position it. I also figured out that you can get good peripheral lighting from the reflector by pointing the light further up than I was originally doing. This means that most of my original concerns no longer exist and I am upgrading this review to five stars. Highly recommended! Side note: for those who still have concerns about the mount, I figured out that this is just a standard tripod mount and there are lots of handlebar tripod mounts out there if you want to upgrade. ORIGINAL REVIEW: This item does a lot of things for one unit, and as with other things that try to perform several functions, it doesn't excel at any of them. But I can say that it does work decently as both a headlight and a speaker for a bicycle. The speaker is not as loud as I would like, but it is louder and has more bass than my phone so that is an improvement. The light is bright enough to ride streets in the dark, but it is a narrow spot that it illuminates only right in front of the light, so you have to be very careful about what you are not seeing on the peripherals. I tried it on a night ride on a trail around a lake, and I had to go much slower than I would have liked because of the lack of width in the beam. The one thing that really falls terribly short of expectations is the mounting system. I got the swivel lock as tight as I could get it, but the light still tilts down forward as I am riding. I have been able to correct that by tilting the whole mount back on the handlebars so that the light is tilted as far forward as it will go when it is straight, but then I lose adjustability. Overall, I would recommend this if you want it for the speaker and just need a headlight to be legal or to make yourself more visible to cars on streets. If you are riding in a very dark area, you may need something with a wider beam area. I haven't tried it as a powerbank, so I won't comment on that function.

I was looking for a sturdy bike speaker but didn't want to spend a fortune. I believe I found just that in this product. Before I was using this speaker, my iPhone just wasn't cutting it on bike rides when it comes to noise level. I did some research and found this bike speaker/light combo and was pretty skeptical with the price. I read some reviews and went ahead and bought it. I LOVE this speaker. Nowhere on the product's box does it state bluetooth so I thought I got ripped at first, but after reading the manual it does have bluetooth and is so simple to connect. I've used it on about 10 bike rides (4-10 miles) and it works great. I usually have it just under max volume and it's plenty loud for my uses. The light is really bright and has 3 modes. Brightest, dimmer and flashing. I've only charged it twice since I've bought it so the battery has good range. I added some photos for your viewing, the 2nd is of the main controls. What's nice is, as long as your bluetooth is on, on your phone, it automatically connects to the speaker as soon as you turn the speaker on. No hassles of going through the syncing process after the initial sync. So far, very durable as well. I accidentally dropped it from 4ft right on the cement and it works perfectly fine. If this last 6 months or more, I'd easily buy another one. The bike mount that is included is very sturdy and the speaker screws right on and holds in place. It also comes with a clip that you can attach to a backpack or pretty much anything you want which is nice for hiking or camping etc.. Hope this helps.

I like the sound quality and loudness of the speaker, though the sound is far more clearer in the direction it's pointing, so as a warning system to oncoming pedestrians while biking, it might not be as effective as a more omnidirectional bike speaker (unless you want to point the speaker forward). The speaker is the highlight of this product in my opinion. I actually used it at home as my PC speaker for a time. As a bike light, the brightness is passable. Its main problem is that the light doesn't spread evenly. Watch my attached video to see what I mean, where I show my regular bike light first, and then the Zealot flashlight after. The Zealot's flashlight lens is just a regular lens, not a spread lens. The light shoots out as a circle, but most of the light's power is focused into an even smaller circle within that circle. The smaller circle is also not a clean circle. It has a weird pattern to it, which made me less confident in it's ability to properly point out details on dark roads without the weird pattern obscuring them. I bought a set of diffuser lens separately to replace the lens, and it does a slightly better job at spreading the beam. As a power supply, I tried to charge my phone with it. In about 40 minutes, my phone went from 2% to 19% before the Zealot gave me a low battery warning. I've only used it as a charger one other time, with similar results. Speaking of the battery, if you only use it as a flashlight and speaker, it actually lasts for a very long time. When I used this as my PC speaker, I went several days before needing to charge it (and I use my computer A LOT). The clamp it comes with is okay. It actually broke for me yesterday (I've had this product for a little under 3 months). The ball joint had problems keeping the Zealot level when I was using it on my electric scooter, even after tightening it as hard as I could. Over time throughout a ride, it would slowly start to tilt forwards or backwards. For riders, I recommend using a different clamp, or applying some kind of non-Newtonian substance to the ball joint to increase the friction (I used paint).

I've now had my S1 bluetooth speaker for two months now and I'm extremely happy with the purchase. I bought this speaker because I was in the market for a bicycle headlamp and a bluetooth speaker that I could carry on my bike. This solved both problems. The speaker is loud and the sound quality is way better than I expected for the price. The battery fully charges in a few hours and lasts more than 6 hours while using bluetooth and the light simultaneously. It lasts longer, but 6 hours is the longest I've used it at one time. I usually use the SD card for my music so I'm not interupted by incoming calls and texts, but the bluetooth pairs easily with my LG G4 and the range is about 40 or 50 feet without obstructions. The light is bright enough to see clearly on night rides and the SOS function keeps me visible during the day. The flap that covers the ports wouldn't stay closed when I first got it, but now it works just fine. I'm not sure if it just needed broken-in or if I just learned how to do it correctly. The waterproof claim is legit. At least for about 30 seconds after capsizing my kayak in a muddy Kansas river. It wasn't in the water any longer than that and I haven't had any issues. I keep this thing with me all the time because I love listening to music, the flashlight is always handy, and I never have to worry about my phone dying on me. I love this unit so much that I'm buying several more to give out as gifts. I'll probably hang on to a couple more myself.

I've owned a bunch of different Bluetooth speakers, and I bike everywhere and prefer to listen to music without endangering myself or others with earbuds preventing me from hearing my surroundings precisely. I had previously purchased a high-quality handlebar mount to hold a speaker, (https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B005FUDN2M/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1) so a big selling point for this one was its mounting capabilities. The fact that this speaker can also act as a power bank and a flashlight is a great set of perks. But what ended up being its biggest virtue, initially at least, is the battery life. I used the speaker at full volume while on my daily commute (~1 hour both ways) plus on night time fun rides SOOO many times without recharging the battery, and somehow my phone kept telling me it was still between 50-80% full. I was singing the praises of this speaker over and over again. The sound is highly directional, but loud enough that if it's positioned well, I could hear my jams clearly even in traffic or wind. Until it wasn't. It died while on a ride a few nights ago, so I recharged the battery fully. The next day, the sound was at maybe 30% of what it had been up til that point. I've tinkered with all my phone's settings, tested it with a volume booster (still barely audible even at 60% boost!), and tested my phone with other Bluetooth speakers. Somehow, the speaker became basically useless overnight after being charged, despite being treated with care the whole time. Of course it broke after the 1 month return window had closed. I should be able to use a speaker like this for years, really, not just weeks. Hopefully the manufacturer/seller will replace it, in which case I'll update this review.